An experimental ritual
by randomfantast
Summary: Hermione Granger has come upon an old American ritual and used it to revive Severus Snape. Now she suddenly is responsible for a man she only knows as a teacher.
1. Chapter 1

Harry was rudely awakened by an owl biting his ear. 'Huh?' he mumbled, 'what happened?'. The owl of course did not answer, but he did drop a note next to Harrys head. Harry grabbed his glasses from the nightstand and started to read.

 _Harry,_

 _In need your help. Please come immediately to my house, this is an EMERGENCY!_

 _Hermione_

 _PS And also a secret._

Harry sighed, wrote a quick note to Ginny telling her he went to Hermiones house, dressed and apparated.

'O Harry, thank Merlin you are here!' Hermione said relieved.

'I came as fast as I could. But what is this massive emergency you called about?" Harry said, still yawning and with a rather tired expression.

'Well, uhm, you see, uuhm, there is, uhm' Hermione started to mumble, 'it is a bit hard to explain'.

'Just start at the beginning and tell me what happened, I am sure we can work it out together' Harry tried to reassure her. 'Lets just sit down, drink some tea, and you explain everything.' Hermione sighed relieved, she poured some tea and they sat down on her couch.

'Ok, you remember I went to study in the US last year?' Hermione began. 'Yes, did something happen over there?' Harry asked.

'No, not exactly. But do you remember that magical historian that I dated?' 'Yeah, sure, what was his name, Matthew?' 'No, Michael, but that doesn't really matter. He was studying the wizarding abolitionist movement, and how the magical community dealt with slavery. A fascinating subject really, did you know that it was normal in some areas to keep muggle slaves until the late 1920's?' Hermione started to calm down, and her enthusiasm for the research began to show. Harry recognised the beginnings of a Hermione lecture after many years of exposure, so he coughed and said: 'Hermione, what does slavery in the 1920s have to do with your current emergency?' 'O, well, my problems started when he told me about the abolitionist movement. Most wizards at the time saw no problems with keeping muggles as slaves, but it was deemed unacceptable to keep a wizard or witch as a slave. So already in the 1750s there were groups of philanthropists who searched for enslaved wizards and witches, or muggleborn slaves and if they found them they bought and freed them. You should really read Michaels book, some of these stories are utterly bizar. But this did not always work, so some philanthropists and former slaves began a darker movement. It was related to some Voodoo practises at the time, but these wizards had a very specific goal. They resurrected magical people who died as slaves!'

Harry, who was listening quite calmly up until this point, immediately started to sputter and he coughed up his tea. 'Hermione, that's impossible!'

Hermione immediately started to blush and said 'I am quite sure it is actually possible, or at least if the dead person fulfils all criteria of this specific spel.'

Harry, who now was very much awake, objected. 'How can you know that? And what kind of criteria? How does this spell work?'

Hermione pointedly ignored his first question and dived into an explanation. 'Well, the spell is focused on the power of the brand that slaves received. It is based on the theory that fire in itself has magical properties, that interact and bond with the magical person that is hurt. The theory is in itself very different than how we British wizards view magic so I don't really understand it. But well, these wizards made a specific ritual in which they brought back to live an enslaved wizard or witch. This person had to have died enslaved, and needed to have receive a brand marking them as a slave during their live. It fascinated me, so I joined Michael in his research of the ritual. But the whole problem started yesterday. I had some drinks and I was reminiscing about the war, Voldemort and his Death Eaters. I suddenly realised that the Death Eaters were actually enslaved to the Dark Lord. They were marked with brands, their free will was taken away and they always had to do his bidding.'

'Not to mention all the bowing and calling him Master and My Lord' murmured Harry.

'Yes, exactly Harry. So one thing lead to another and suddenly I was wondering wether I could use the American ritual to revive a Death Eater.'

'A what? Why would you revive a Death Eater Hermione? Harry seemed utterly flabbergasted.

'Not any Death Eater of course, but a repentant Death Eater, a good man caught up in the wrong circumstances.'

'Hermione, do you mean Snape?' If Harry had seemed flabbergasted a few minutes ago now he appeared to be utterly unable to think, he was just staring ahead like a goldfish.

'Yes, exactly!' Hermione said enthusiastically. 'Professor Snape did not deserve to die.'

'That is true, but reviving him is a bit extreme don't you think? Perhaps he is at peace, why would he even want to be resurrected?'

'An excellent question mister Potter' sounded in the characteristic voice of Severus Snape. 'Luckily for miss Granger here I did have some unfinished business that I would like to attend.'

At this point Harry seemed incapable of uttering another word. He made some little gasping noises and turned around to the source of this unexpected addition to their conversation. Coming out of Hermiones guest bedroom was none other than Hogwarts most hated potions master of the last century.

'I think you can see where I would need you help Harry?' Hermione whispered nervously. 'What do I do now?'

 **AN:** The details regarding slavery and Voodoo are adapted from reality, using lots af creative freedom. But I can seriously imagine pureblood supremacists not having any problems with keeping muggles as slaves.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry took a while to recover from the experience of seeing a man he had witnessed dying at a rather traumatic point in his life standing in front of him. This included several minutes of staring and mumbling little words like 'what' and 'but', that seemed to amuse the former dead potions master. 'Eloquent as always Potter' he commented, which roused Harry from his state of shock.

'Uhm Hermione', he said, 'I do not think there is much we can do at the moment. Perhaps we can figure out what to do tomorrow? Right now everybody that we could contact is probably asleep.'

'That will not be necessary mister Potter' answered Severus Snape instead of Hermione. 'I personally feel very awake at the moment and I can start making arrangements for my future.' 'An excellent idea!' exclaimed Hermione. 'What do you want to do with your life? Where do you want to live? What kind of job do you want? Do you need anything? Money perhaps? Or is there something I can do?'

'Calm down miss Granger' Severus answered, rather agitated. 'Right now I will need to check with Gringotts wether I can access my account, which I can do perfectly fine by myself. All other decisions can only be made after I know my financial position. Goodbye for now and we will speak about what you did to me at some other time.'

At the mention of this future conversation Hermione paled and swallowed audibly. She nodded and watched silently as Severus walked to the door of her apartment. After he closed the door behind himself Hermione sighed and went to sit down on the couch. Harry suspected she would need some time to adjust to the consequences of her acts and he prepared himself for a long night of talking, analysing and the making of several lists. But just as Hermione seemed to start to relax the doorbell ringed and she jumped off the couch in such a fast reflex that Harry thought he would use that move as an inspiration for his next dive to the snitch.

Hermione grudgingly walked to the door and opened it to find none other that her former professor. 'Miss Granger, I seem to be missing my wand' he said. 'If either one of you two could apparate me to Diagon Alley that would be much appreciated'. Harry personally doubted wether this sour man was even able to genuinely appreciate another humans kindness, but he did not think Hermione would start to feel better with a trip to Diagon Alley. He gathered his courage, reminded himself of all the times Hermione had helped him and told Severus that he would accompany him. This seemed to surprise Severus, but Severus nodded and walked out of the door with a short nod to Hermione and a look at Harry that clearly meant to convey that he did not have all day for his business. Harry sighed, gave Hermione a fast hug and followed his nemesis turned into a hero. 'I'll come back as soon as I can Hermione' he told her. 'Tomorrow everything will probably be fine'.

As soon as he was outside Harry offered his hand to Severus and swiftly apparated them to the entrance of Gringotts bank. The bank looked dark and inaccessible and Harry wondered if they would trigger some kind of unpleasant security measure if they tried to enter the bank. Just as Harry opened his mouth to point this out Severus started to walk past the building and approached a smaller door that Harry always thought was closed permanently.


End file.
